


Aspirant

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Witchblade (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 11:49:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16017284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Gabriel confronts Irons. The two of them take each other's measure, feeling the connection between them via the Witchblade. Each try to warn the other off in his way, only just how much can anyone fight or control destiny?





	Aspirant

**Author's Note:**

> This happens before Sara and Irons's fight in Destiny. 
> 
> Gabriel looks so much to me like a model Caravaggio might have used. In this story, Irons notices that as well. 
> 
> I don't own Witchblade, but it can take over my imagination completely, weaving many of my fanfics together in a web...it feels like all of them are connected now. :)

“Gabriel Bowman.” Kenneth Irons bobbed his head in a slight gesture of acknowledgment. “What can I do for an aspiring student in the arts of destiny?”

“The arts of destiny?” Gabriel raised his eyebrow, keeping his attention fixed upon him. 

“You collect objects of power.” Irons fixed his searing blue gaze upon him. “Surely you seek more than the pleasures your pretty flesh will offer you.”

“True enough.” Gabriel bit his lower lip. “Only some objects require more than a lifetime of study to truly control.” He kept his eye locked with Irons, feeling the air vibrate between them. 

Something was gathering, building. A pressure which threatened to bear down on both of them. 

“You think you’re a match for me, my dear?” Kenneth Irons smiled. “A wielder of destiny whose seen so much?”

An image flashed behind his eyes of this man putting on the Witchblade, lifting his arm, crying out in desperate, anguished love as a plethora of images rushed through his head. 

Sara, always Sara. Sara with many names in different times and places. Others drawn to her destiny in a web. 

Like Kenneth Irons. Like himself. 

“Destiny cannot be wielded,” Gabriel said through gritted teeth. “You can only ride it like a wave, looking for opportunities to share its power.”

“Such charming deference.” Kenneth Irons nodded with the genuine courtesy he showed anything worth a moment of admiration. “You have the face and body of an angel, worthy of beguiling Caravaggio, but you won’t bewitch the Witchblade with your charms nor me.” Irons showed even more of his teeth, the gentleman shark. “Admirer of yours I may be. Ally I am not.”

“Kenneth.” Gabriel gave his patron a sideways glance, dropping all pretense at formality. “As you lay dying, remember.” He winked at the older man. “I warned you.”

Kenneth Irons’s smirk disappeared.

**Author's Note:**

> The words Kenneth Irons uses "Admirer of yours I might be, ally I am not" are a deliberate mockery and call back to Sara and Gabriel's words during the first season and the alternate timeline, "Grateful I may be. Trusting I am not."
> 
> Gabriel's comeback "As you lay dying, remember. I warned you" is a repeat of Kenneth Irons's words during the first season episode of Transcendence to Bruno Dante. They turned out to be prophetic. 
> 
> So does Gabriel's.


End file.
